


Javert's Daughter

by sherlockonthebarricade



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-21
Updated: 2014-08-29
Packaged: 2018-02-14 04:41:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2178288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sherlockonthebarricade/pseuds/sherlockonthebarricade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Javert arrests Valjean at the hospital where Fantine lies dead. He soon thinks of her child, and how she is suffering. Javert adopts Cosette in the place of Valjean and another story begins, revealing a new caring side of the Police Inspector.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. This Woman Leaves Behind A Suffering Child

"This woman leaves behind a suffering child! There is none but me who can intercede!" Valjean pleaded with Javert. "Your duty to the child of a dead slut is not my problem. You broke the law, so you shall pay," Javert answered as he handcuffed Valjean. Javert was proud that he had finally caught the convict, and as he stood in front of the judge, he said, "Valjean is the convict that served nineteen years in prison for thievery and numerous escape attempts. He broke parole and disappeared, therefore breaking the law." Valjean was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.

That was the first night since Valjean's law-breaking disappearance that Javert slept soundly. His purpose had been fulfilled and he no longer had to worry about Valjean. Javert enjoyed his Sunday, ate well and relaxed after years of chasing a convict.

That night Javert replayed Valjean's arrest in his head. Something disturbed him. This child. The child of the dead woman. Suffering. Not that Javert had any problems with suffering. It was just that this child, an innocent child living with an innkeeper. Innkeepers are never trustworthy. They rob and cheat, and this young child who had never done a wrong in her life was imprisoned in their home.

 _How can I let this happen?_ he thought. He couldn't. He couldn't let evil be done to the innocent, so he set out for the inn. 


	2. I Stand Here In Her Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Javert takes Cosette away from the Thenardiers, and his cold stone heart is melted by his new daughter.

He called for his horse and a carriage. After about a days travel, he arrived at the small village where the girl currently lived. The village was under a thin blanket of snow and a warm glow from a lantern filled the little courtyard outside the inn. He walked through the doors of the inn, and was immediately met by the rotten stench of alcohol.

"Where's the child, Cosette?" Javert asked in his police interrogator voice as he approached a plump woman with curly brown hair. The woman looked startled briefly, then smiled sweetly. Madame Thenardier began to flirt with Javert, as she usually did with customers. "Well, what do we have here? A policeman?" She whispered, "I like policemen."

Javert gave her a stern, frustrated look. "I am here for Cosette. Where is she?" Madame Thenardier yelled the child's name, and a thin, frail girl rushed round the corner with a broom and a bucket. "Do you know this man?" The woman demanded. "No ma'am, I don't," the girl mumbled, frightened. Madame Thenardier addressed Javert, "who are you then, and what do you want with Cosette?"

"My name is Inspector Javert. I want to take Cosette away from this place," Madame Thenardier looked astonished and offended before Javert turned to Cosette, crouched down and took her hands, saying softly, "Your mother is with God. Her suffering is over. I speak here with her voice and I stand here in her place. I'm going to take you away, and we're going to be a family."

Javert took the young girl into his arms and carried her out of the inn and into the street where he walked her to a toy shop. "Choose anything, my dear child, anything at all and it shall be yours." Cosette, stunned by her sudden freedom, stood and stared silently at the rows of stuffed animals, wooden houses, puppets. After a while, she decided on a china doll in a blue satin dress. Her new father smiled and paid for the doll and returned it to his new daughter. "Thank you," she said and as she hugged the doll she whispered in it's fragile china ear, "I love you." 

"Your carriage awaits, princess," Javert held open the door of the carriage and helped Cosette into it. When they were on their way back to Javert's house, he made conversation awkwardly. 

"So, what was it like living with those people?"  
"I was their slave girl. I got one meal a day if I was lucky. They hated me, made me do all the cleaning and fetching and carrying. It was horrible."  
"Well, where I live, you won't have to do anything. I have servants to do everything for us." Seeing the concerned look on Cosette's face, he quickly added, "but don't worry, they get paid and they eat well."  
"Why are you being so nice to me?"  
"I told you, your mother died, and I knew you were being mistreated, so I stepped in to look after you."  
"But why? You didn't have to, but you did."  
"Well, my job as a policeman means not a lot of people like me. I don't have any friends and I'm very lonely. And secretly, I've always wanted a daughter."  
"I'm your daughter now?" Cosette asked hopefully, a bit surprised.  
"Of course my dear. I'm adopting you, which means I'll be your Papa."

"Papa..." Cosette smiled and hugged him, a gesture that warmed the stone heart of the man who thought he could never love, but then suddenly did.


	3. Yes It's True There's A Child And The Child Is My Daughter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a bit of a setting the scene chapter...

Javert looked down at the small child that clung onto him. Her arms were like twigs and her legs were similar. She had a smudge of dirt on her nose. Her blonde hair was dirty and matted. Her ripped dress was too small and was in rags.

"Good God, Cosette we must get you some new clothes!" The small girl looked taken aback. She had never before had 'new clothes'. All she had ever worn were discarded and unwanted dresses of the Thenardiers' daughters. Nobody had ever bought her 'new clothes'. "We will go shopping tomorrow and we will buy you three new dresses and some pretty shoes. Would you like that?"

Cosette nodded eagerly. She glanced out of the window at a sweetshop with brightly coloured lollypops in wooden crates outside the shop front. Javert noticed her gazing longingly. He handed her twenty francs saying, "why don't you go in there and spend some money?" Javert smiled as he watched his daughter run into the shop.

"Oi! We don't deal with street rats in here! Get out!" A fat woman shouted, pointing a finger towards the door. The woman grabbed Cosette's wrist and was about to drag her out when Javert stepped into the shop and said, "don't you lay a hand on her. This child is my daughter. She has come in here to buy some of your sweets. Unless you wish for her to spend her twenty francs elsewhere I suggest you unhand her."

The woman's gaze flickered down to the money in Cosette's boney hands and she apologised. "Go ahead, pick whatever you want," Javert said to Cosette, and she picked up three lollypops and some chocolate. While she wasn't looking, her new father picked a few more sweets for her to eat later. They paid and got back into the waiting carriage.

A few days later, Javert walked into his workplace. "Good morning Inspector," chirped his latest recruit, Luc, "I've heard rumours, Monsieur, about a child." Javert hated Luc. He was arrogant and intended to marry an incredibly rich woman, just for her money and title. He would take her name so he could become part of her family of nobles. 

"Yes it's true, there's a child and the child is my daughter. Well, she is my adopted daughter. Her name is Euphrasie, but the name she goes by is Cosette. She is the most beautiful child you could ever see."

Javert, despite only gaining a daughter five days ago, was already a proud and loving father. He adored Cosette and, like most fathers, thought his daughter was an angel. And she was very bright as well, and he intended to get a tutor for her, to teach her about literature and mathematics, though it was unusual for a girl to be studying. 

Javert, however, thought that girls should be allowed to learn. He wanted the best for Cosette, and he knew an education would get her that. She had also made a few friends. Among them was a boy who's father ran the florist's shop that Javert often bought flowers from. He liked this boy. His family was decent, and he himself was a hardworking and knowledgable child. 

As Javert sat down at the small wooden table next to Cosette, he smiled at her and they ate their evening meal. He walked her up to her bedroom and tucked her into bed. "Will you tell me a story Papa?" Javert sat on her bed and began,

"There once was a beautiful princess who lived in a beautiful palace. She was the fairest in all the land. Every day, she would wake up and look in the mirror saying, 'I am the most beautiful princess in all the land!'

"One day, she decided to have he friends over for dinner. When they all arrived, they sat down at the table and were served a delicious meal. 'Look, I am a wonderful person. I have given you all this food. I am amazing. I am the most beautiful princess in all the land. I'm prettier than you, and you, and you.' Her friends didn't like her anymore. So when she next invited them for dinner, they didn't go.

"She soon grew very lonely, because nobody liked her. Nobody liked her because she boasted about her beauty too much. So she was always lonely and stayed alone forever.

"And that, my dear Cosette, is why you must never boast. I think you are the most beautiful girl in the world, but you mustn't tell everyone you meet that you are prettier than them, because nobody will like you if you do. It's very important to have friends."

"I won't Papa, I'll be a good girl."

"Alright, my love, off to sleep now." He planted a kiss on her forehead and blew out the candle.


End file.
